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Switzerland is expensive but even in Zurich 7,686 francs is a lot for coffee and cake.

However, that is precisely how much money Olesya Shemyakova ended up spending when she visited a kebab shop in Dietikon in the canton of Zurich recently.

The error occurred when the 37-year-old went to pay the actual bill of 23.70 francs. Instead of putting in the amount in the payment terminal, however, she typed in what was her pin code at that time: 7686. That is a hefty tip of 7,662.30 francs.

For that amount of money, she could have bought a very nice Vespa GTS 300 moped as picture below (price 7,195 francs):

Or she could have bought two of these very nice, high-end couches from Micasa, the furniture arm of Migros (price 3,299 francs).

Shemyakova didn’t realise her mistake until the end of the month when she received her credit card bill, Swiss newspaper Blick reported.

The unemployed woman who lives in France made frantic calls to her credit card company and to police in Dietikon, but both said they were unable to help – the credit card company because no fraud had been committed, and the police because no crime was involved.

Meanwhile, she was unable to get through to the new New-Point chain of kebab restaurants. Switzerland's Blick newspaper was unable to contact the firm either.

Now, however, a solution may be in sight. According to the 20 Minuten news site, the brother of the man who is responsible for the New-Point franchise has said the money will be refunded. The manager was currently in Turkey, his brother explained.

The brother also expressed his surprise at the very high tip. "In fact, above a certain amount, the payment shouldn't even be possible," he said.

“I hope this is not just an empty promise,” Olesya Shemyakova told 20 Minuten on Sunday, after hearing the news of the possible refund.

Restaurant customers are not expected to tip in Switzerland but people regularly round up to the nearest franc on smaller bills or to the nearest ten-franc amount on larger bills.